Lesson 06 Sacrifice

Sacrificing is never an easy thing in this life.  However, there are certain events in life that occur that help ease the difficulty we have with sacrifice.  One of those events for me was marriage.  Before I was married, I loved to spend time with my friends.  We would go out just about every night and hang out.  We would go to movies, out to dinner, play board games, and just enjoy each other’s company.  One thing that I noticed though when I got married was that I had a lot of friends of the opposite sex who were still single.  Up to this point it wasn’t something that I had thought of but after marriage it seemed strange and unacceptable to continue these friendships.  After talking to my wife, she agreed that it was inappropriate so I sacrificed a lot of my friends for the betterment of my marriage.  I don’t’ regret the decision because I am married to my best friend and love her more than anything in the entire world.  That sacrifice was hard but well worth it.  As I thought about what else I have sacrificed I began to think about what I am not sacrificing but should be.  One thing that I need to be better at sacrificing is my own personal time.  Most days I feel like I need to decompress and just take some time for myself.  While this is not unusual or selfish, I have been reflecting on how hard my wife works and realized that while I am relaxing, she is doing more.  She is picking up the slack and allowing me that time.  Is that fair to her?  Shouldn’t we be relaxing together?  I think that if I were to decompress at a more opportune time instead of when I walk through the door, my wife would appreciate the help with dinner and with our 3 small children.  It isn’t something that I do every day but I think my wife would see the sacrifice and appreciate the help that she would never ask for.